YK Tzeirei HaShluchim 5774: Tanks, Trenches, and The Friday Night כותל Experience!!

Standing on a real tank at the ליטרון tank museum

This ערב שבת featured a packed schedule including the tank museum, ammunition hill and of course an inspirational קבלת שבת by the כותל.

So sure enough at approx 5:30 am Friday morning (closer to 5:45 but I'm not complaining) we got woken up for our שבת ירושלים trip. By 7:15 am we had already finished davening and were about to enter the buses when we got interrupted by a full-on Muffin and Choko Spread (you can always interrupt me with a Choko) to take with us on our long journey. The journey lasted about 2.5 hrs (we had no clue where to..) until we arrived at our first trip destination: The ליטרון tank museum.

We started with a hearty Israeli breakfast (I'm starting to really miss those potato bagels) and then we started the tour. For about an hour and a half we journeyed through the collection of priceless Israeli Army relics, really interesting actually. They showed us the exact location of a battle where over 200 Israeli Soldiers lost their lives, these people died for us to have this land. We got to see tanks that can fire a fist-sized hole at target more than 3000 yards away, as well as tanks that can comfortably seat a full minyan. After the tour we were allotted a few minutes to walk around and take some pics, then it was off to part two: Ammunition Hill.

Ammunition Hill or גבעת התחמושת was formally a Jordanian occupied bunker which played a huge role in the 6 Day War. The battle which took place there was an essential part of how we are able to go to the whole ירושלים today. It was at Ammunition Hill where we met our famous tour guide "Gili," he is an extremely knowledgeable guy who really knows how to connect The תורה to everything (talking he is good at, sometimes its the stopping he could work on) I hope we have him on all of our trips. He led us around the actual trenches that the Israelis fought in over 40 years ago, we even got to run through them like real soldiers. After the tour we watched the video (חרידי version of course) and then we ate lunch. From there we departed to our final (ערב שבת) destination: The Diaspora Yeshiva ישיבת התפוצות.

The Diaspora Yeshiva is ממש a cool place. The design reflects that of a thousand years ago (Jerusalem stone and really really low door frames) but they don't cut back on modern comforts (Legit AC and comfortable mattresses). The place is located right near קבר דוד, which as far as I understand definitely might possibly be the location of his actual קבר. We had about 2 hrs to unpack, do rambam, go to mikva and get ready for shabbos before we left for the spiritual highlight of trip: קבלת שבת by the כותל.

קבלת שבת by the כותל definitely lived up to the hype. We had a group סדר ניגונים with 100+ people led by our own בעל מנגן which was truly inspiring. We sang and danced with people from all walks of life (I'm pretty sure there was even an Asian in the circle), its a place where all Jews feel at home. Upon arriving back at the Diaspora Yeshiva we were greeted with a feast fit for a king (still no gefilte fish...) with plenty of speeches to go around. Definitely a great meal to conclude such an amazing day.